Silver Batal and the Water Dragon Races by K. D. Halbrook

Author:K. D. Halbrook
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

TWENTY-THREE

A low white wall ringed the whole palace. At least, Silver assumed it went all the way around. The grounds were so big that she couldn’t see the end of them. The center building was a huge rounded-edged rectangle, not quite a dome and not quite angular like all the other buildings in town, but something in between. It seemed to flow like water, sometimes straight across and sometimes curving. There were six white towers around it, three on either side. The Calidian royal flag, a circlet of gemstones on a black background, fluttered from a dome on the top of each. Gold and silver winked at them from all angles. The precious metals were used as decoration on the tower walls and ceiling, on the statues in the pools, and around the doors and windows, like the tiles in the outer Calidian ring.

“Listen. Hear that?” Silver said to her cousin.

“I don’t hear anything,” Brajon said.

“Exactly. It’s so quiet here. There aren’t as many people. And they’re not in a hurry.”

As they approached the pools, Silver looked more closely at the statues that rose from the water. They were all water dragons. Species Silver thought she recognized from trader stories, and others that were unfamiliar to her. A thin rod rose from the center of each statue, and bells hung down the side of the rods. When a sudden wind danced over their skin, the bells rang gently, eliciting a calming music.

“Oh, look,” Silver squealed. She hopped over a low fence and dashed toward one of the pools, pointing at a small creature swimming slow laps around the circle.

But as soon as the creature saw her coming, it raised its long horn-shaped snout and let loose a shrill alarm.

“You!” An angry voice sailed across the palace grounds. “Get back from there before I arrest you!”

A man dressed in head-to-toe white ran toward her. Silver hadn’t noticed him standing against the wall, since his clothes blended in perfectly with the palace, but now that she saw him, she realized there were many guards on the palace grounds, all dressed in white, all pressed against the wall. How many other guards throughout the city had they missed? The hairs on Silver’s neck stood on end. They would have to be more careful.

Silver hastily backed away. “I’m sorry.”

“You can’t come in here. It’s treason to trespass on the queen’s property.”

“I…” Silver pointed at the small creature who’d continued its turns around the pool. Its gray-and-black-striped tail and the black tufts on top of its head wiggled side to side as it swam. “It’s just that I’ve never seen one before.”

Suddenly, the guard smiled, his mustache bouncing with mirth at the ends, and his whole face became friendly. “Never seen an Abruq? Not from Calidia, then. Fine little water dragons. Can sound an alarm loud enough to wake the dead. Very useful.”

“They’re so cute.”

“About the right size to cuddle in your arms, aren’t they?” The guard shook his head. “Much too restless to stay still, though.

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